Tony Moo Young Paintings + Jamie Reid – Leaving The 20th Century

It’s hard to think of two more contrasting artists than the charming, softly-spoken painter Tony Moo Young and the Sex Pistol’s graphic artist Jamie Reid.

Tony had all his subtle abstract paintings beautifully framed, labelled and hung ready for the preview while Jamie Reid – encouraged by Derek Stockley, who was liaising with him on behalf of the Collective – finally staggered in a few days later with a couple of binbags full of Pistols ephemera. Over the next couple of weeks – fuelled by a constant supply of Special Brew - he slowly manage to glue this collection of posters, flyers, and other scraps of paper directly onto the panels of one of the Gallery’s hardboard walls.

There was an amazing exhibition closing party – during which he had a shave – and the next day the ageing punk and his actor wife ripped the hardboard panels off their fixings, loaded his vast collage into a van and drove away. As the motto says, never trust a punk. Jan Zalud and I had to go round to the timber yard in Station Road and buy a replacement set of wooden boards to put back the wall ready for the next exhibition.

Kumiko’s Magic Laundry was a performance art evening staged during the exhibition.